He considered this too. "We're not placed in the same way," he said. "I'm part of the machine, and I'm learning to be a still more important part of the machine."
"Well, am I not part of the machine too? If we were just here to enjoy ourselves, as some people do buy country houses just to enjoy themselves, I suppose that would mean standing apart from the machine. But we aren't like that, are we?"
He did not reply at once, and as they had now reached the rock-garden, and Caroline's next words were about the flowers that were showing their vivid spring colours in the amphitheatre all about them, the conversation was broken off for the time.
But it was resumed again a little later, as they stood here and there, or moved slowly up and down the rocky stairs or about the stone paths.
"You know, I think we did take it rather as a new toy when we first come down here," Caroline said. "We loved the country, and we wanted a country house of our very own. Of course we've all enjoyed it awfully in that way, but I don't think any of us thought we should live here so much as we have. We've hardly lived in London, all together, since. And we are always wanting to get back here when we do."
"Mr. Grafton doesn't take such an interest in the estate as Sir Alexander does in Wilborough?" he said.
She laughed. "Darling old Dad!" she said. "It is rather a bore to him. He works when he is in London, and likes to play down here, and leave the work to you and Uncle Jimmy. But he's a good Squire all the same, isn't he? He gives you everything you ask for."
"Oh, yes. There's never any trouble about money to run the show as it ought to be run. I only meant he didn't take much interest in details."
"I don't suppose people at the head of a big business generally do, do they? They leave the details to the people they can trust. Dad wouldn't take much interest in the details of his banking."
"Oh, well, I see what you mean. This isn't his real business as it is Sir Alexander's. Still, there's something I can't get quite right in my mind. It's all so—well, so happy, to me, that I don't like to think there's a flaw anywhere—in the system, I mean. Mr. Grafton pays for it, doesn't he? He makes his money somewhere else. He bought the estate, but it can't return him much on his capital—certainly not enough to live on in the way you do."